Institutional Collective Reassesses SanDisk: AI Inference Drives KV Cache Demand, NAND Upgrades from "Cyclical Product" to "Infrastructure Backbone"

August 15th. Following SanDisk's Investor Day, multiple Wall Street institutions will reposition the company back into the AI infrastructure mainstream. The reason is that the demand for large model inference on KV Cache, enterprise-level SSD, and high-bandwidth flash memory will transform NAND from just a price variety in the consumer electronics cycle.

JPMorgan resumes coverage of SanDisk with an "Overweight" rating and a target price of $2250. The firm believes that SanDisk's signing of multi-year agreements with major customers will enhance demand visibility and support profit margins amid tight NAND supply.

Citi maintains a "Buy" rating with a target price of $2100, also focusing on the revenue stability brought by long-term contracts and the structural drive of AI data centers on flash memory demand.

Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, is relatively cautious, noting the potential challenges in achieving the high-profit margin target set by the company. However, they also acknowledge that SanDisk has the opportunity to sustain profitability levels above historical averages in the coming years amid supply shortages and resonating AI demand.

This reassessment has already been directly reflected in the market. SanDisk rose by approximately 6.5% on Friday, with a cumulative rebound of nearly 35% this week. Over the past two weeks, the increase has exceeded 60%. Other companies in the storage chain, such as Micron, Western Digital, and Seagate, have also been driven up.